present Michigan City. It has now entirely disappeared from the map. The Michigan Central Railroad terminated there, and from this point two daily lines of steamers ran to Chicago, a distance of nearly fortyfive miles. The time between Chicago and New York became thus reduced to two and a half days. The population of Chicago in 1850 was twenty-eight thousand. The Galena Railroad of Illinois was at that time completed and in operation from Chicago to Elgin, a distance of forty-two miles. The Galena Railroad Company for a time entertained the design of completing the Michigan Central road from New Buffalo into Chicago, but that was finally done by the Michigan Central Railroad Company themselves.

The following statement shows the earnings from passengers, freight, &c., and the proportion of earnings consumed in operating expenses of this road, for a series of years.

The following table shows the earnings and expenses of the last two years:

HOTEL CARS.-On the whole of this route, between New York and Chicago, by way of Albany and Suspension Bridge, are to be found the elegant new sleeping cars of Mr. Pullman, which are as much superior to the sleeping cars in recent use, as the present mode of railroad travelling is superior to the old stage coach. Here are no dirty bed-clothing reeking with foul smells; no unclean mattresses; no foul air; in a word, none of the features that make the traveller turn away in disgust. No; here everything is beautifully clean, fresh, and sweet. The cars are divided into compartments, each one as private as a room in a hotel, and quite as comfortable. In each there is a sofa, a table, and two arm-chairs. At night the sofa and chairs are made up into three double berths, with plenty of room above and below, and plenty of ventilation. The traveller gets up in the morning refreshed with a comfortable sleep, finds all the conveniences for washing, rings his bell, orders

his breakfast from a printed bill of fare, and has it brought to him hot, in warm plates, and with clean linen, bright glasses and silver forks. The meals are cooked on board, and are served up in delicious style, and the traveller eats them at his leisure. Such is the hotel car which has just been introduced, and which will add so much to the comfort of travellers. A lady writes, in regard to the meals on these cars :

"Our breakfast consisted of delicious porter-house steak, eggs, toast, hot rolls, and splendid tea and coffee, and the dinner was made up of chickens, roast beef, potatoes, sweet corn, currie, with a dessert of nicely canned peaches, and other nice things. The tables set in the car remind one of a table at Delmonico's. All is cooked in the baggage car."

The admirable and successful management of this important road, the Michigan Central, is due in a great measure to the personal exertions and great experience of the General Superintendent, R. N. Rice, Esq., who resides at Detroit, and who exercises the most vigilant supervision over all the departments of the service.

The Company has just erected a new freight building at Detroit, which is one of the finest structures of the kind in the country.

The officers of the Company are John W. Brooks President; R. B. Forbes, Vice-President; Isaac Livermore, Treasurer, R. N. Rice, General Superintendent.

CHAPTER XVI.

NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD.

THE main line of the Erie Railway is four hundred and sixty miles in length, and passes through portions of the most important valleys of the Atlantic Slope. From the valley of the Hudson it crosses the Shawangunk Mountains into the valley of the Delaware. From Susquehanna to Waverley it runs along the banks of the north branch of the Susquehanna. Next on the Genesee it is found in the valley of the lower St. Lawrence. From Olean to Salamanca it runs for twenty miles on the margin of a river which flows into the Mississippi, and its western terminus is on the shore of the system of lakes which forms the upper St. Lawrence. Except the great Pacific road, no other road in the country has a better right to the title of national.

Before the Erie Canal was completed projects were agitated for the improvement of the means of communication through the southern tier of counties in the State of New York; and soon after that great work was opened application was made to the General Government for a corps of engineers to survey the proposed route. The application at first promised to be completely successful, but the aid was ultimately limited to the services of one officer on

terms

which were availed of only by the counties of Orange, Rochester, and Sullivan.

This reconnoissance was made in the year 1832, under the superintendence of Col. De Witt Clinton, Jr, and, though not made at the request of the corporation by whom the road was eventually constructed, it proved to be of great service to them, demonstrating that the supposed obstacles had been exaggerated, and it identified the name of Clinton with the Erie Railway as indelibly as it had been identified with that of the Erie Canal.

In the season of 1832, the Legislature of New York incorporated the New York and Erie Railroad Company, with authority to construct a railroad with single, double, or treble tracks from the Hudson River to Lake Erie through the southern tier of counties of the State. With the sectional state jealousy which distinguished the legislation of that time, the Corporation was specially forbidden to connect their road with any road in the State of New Jersey.

It was not until May, 1833, that steps were taken to act under this charter; when a notice of the opening of the books and the terms of subscription of the stock was issued, signed by such men as Morgan Lewis, Isaac Lawrence, Stephen Whitney, John Haggerty, Elisha Riggs, Gideon Lee, John Duer, and others. The pamphlet which accompanied this notice, extravagant as it doubtless seemed to some of the signers, will bring a smile on the face of the reader of 1867. They say "there can be no extravagance in the opinion that the proposed railway would be altogether the most important and most productive